According to Reform Party chairman Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s annual limit on immigration should be abolished. Such a move would help against Estonia’s labor shortage problem, he argues.

“The past few years have already shown that labor shortage needs to be addressed,” Pevkur told ERR’s Aktuaalne kaamera newscast. One solution was to lose the limit on immigration, which for years had been set at a certain percent of Estonia’s population.

As he sees it, specific criteria should be introduced for people who want to live and work in Estonia. “Then it would be possible to develop the economy and businesses, and have it grow as well,” Pevkur said.

“Today we can see that employment is very high, and for the next steep it’s necessary to abolish these limits,” he added.

The Employers’ Confederation as well as the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had already discussed the possible introduction of a points system. The basic idea was that Estonia would still control who was allowed to enter its labor market, Pevkur said.

Pevkur would look at different sectors to identify where the greatest labor shortages are. The according sector would then either be excluded from the immigration quota, or the quota abolished altogether. Instead, there would be demands as to salaries paid to foreign employees as well as their education.

According to Pevkur, the IT sector is struggling with a labor problem. A similar issue existed in seasonal industries, such as tourism and also agriculture.